LA Tech Week 2025: Wednesday’s Event Lineup

LA Tech Week 2025: Wednesday’s Event Lineup

Here's the Wednesday, October 15th lineup for LA Tech Week 2025, organized by location so you can easily explore events that fit your goals and schedule. Dive in and see what’s happening near you!

ARTS DISTRICT

5:00 PM – 7:30 PM

  • Heat & Haze: LA’s Dual Climate Emergency: See Details Here
    ThermoShade, AirVitalize, JPMorgan

BEL AIR

7:00 PM

BEVERLY HILLS

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM

  • Rejuvenation Mansion: See Details Here
    Rejuvenation Summit, iceless.la, Roam & Reset

11:00 AM

  • Series A founders +Investors@ Private Club Hollywood, featuring Arthur Spivak: See Details Here
    Atlas Cloud AI, Amino Capital, Wilson Sonsini

2:00 PM

  • LAVA Bio/Global LAVA Korea LA TechWeek Showcase: *Invite Only*
    LAVA

3:30 PM

5:30 PM

5:30 PM

  • What's Next in Comms –Happy Hour by PeakMetrics & Stakeholder Labs: See Details Here
    PeakMetrics

6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

  • BAD BITCH EMPIRE: Unapologetic Wealth: See Details Here
    Bad Bitch Empire, Women in AI

6:30 PM

  • LIGHT DAO SALON: Investor Fireside Chat with: Saurabh Suri, CerraCap Ventures: See Details Here
    Light Dao, EVOLVING POTENTIAL

BRENTWOOD

11:15 AM

  • Longevity: Investable Science: See Details Here
    Monarch Athletic Club, The Reason Longevity AI Intelligence

CENTURY CITY

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

  • VCPE: LA TECH WEEK Panel & Pitch 2025: See Details Here
    VCPE GROUPS, ECVC ACCELERATOR, Sente Ventures

11:00 AM – 1:30 PM

  • Investing in Music’s Future Through Advocacy & Innovation: See Details Here
    Solid Gold Global, BMO

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

2:30 PM – 5:30 PM

  • VCPE & FAMILY OFFICES Happy Hour: See Details Here
    VCPE GROUPS, LiveToGive, AutoParts.com

4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

  • a16z Speedrun x Litquidity Ventures: Investor Padel Mixer: See Details Here
    Litquidity Ventures, a16z speedrun

5:30 PM

  • Built Smarter: Tech Shaping Housing: See Details Here
    YIMBY Los Angeles, Venable LLP

6:30 PM

CULVER CITY

8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

4:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • The Future of High Performance: Longevity, Recovery, and Resilience in Tech: See Details Here
    ConciergeMD

4:30 PM – 7:30 PM

  • OpenDrives' Astraeus Product Launch Celebration: Bringing the Cloud Back Down to Earth: See Details Here
    OpenDrives

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • Techstars Aerospace & Defense Happy Hour w/ US Space Force and NASA JPL: See Details Here
    Techstars Space, Wilson Sonsini, Leonid Capital Partners

5:00 PM

5:00 PM

5:30 PM – 8:00 PM

6:30 PM

DTLA

9:00 AM

  • Future of Connectivity, Automation Impacting Companies, Retailers, and Family Offices: See Details Here
    Inspire Global Ventures, Digital Evolution Institute

10:00 AM

6:00 PM

ECHO PARK

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

EL SEGUNDO

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

1:00 PM

  • XR, Robotics & AI in Film Panels: *Invite Only*
    Undercurrent XR Studios

5:00 PM

  • Black Flag National Security Happy Hour: See Details Here
    Shield Capital, Harpoon Ventures, In-Q-Tel

5:30 PM

  • First & Third | A HardTech Happy Hour: See Details Here
    Third Prime, AWS, First Resonance

5:30 PM – 8:00 PM

  • Stress Tested: Defense Tech Meeting Reality: See Details Here
    Starburst, Picogrid

5:30 PM – 8:30 PM

  • Founders, Funders, & Forever Companies: A Mid-Week Mixer: See Details Here
    Trousdale Ventures

6:00 PM

  • Women in Data: *Invite Only*
    Sigma Computing, Prodege, Snowflake

7:00 PM

  • AI for building rockets and robots: CAD Reimiagined: See Details Here
    Hestus, Artifact, Rock Yard Ventures

HOLLYWOOD

11:00 AM – 1:30 PM

  • Imagination x Innovation: Tech's Role in the Future of Entertainment: See Details Here
    a16z speedrun, Comcast

12:00 PM

3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

  • Happy Hour & Panel with Crunchyroll, Vuori and Transcarent: See Details Here
    Mixpanel

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

5:00 PM – 8:30 PM

5:30 PM

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

  • AI, Learning and Creative Futures: See Details Here
    ASU Herberger Institute of Design and The Arts, FYI Campus (Will.i.am)

KOREATOWN

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

MALIBU

12:00 PM

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

MAR VISTA

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

  • The Longevity Advantage: How Top Founders Use Performance Medicine To Outlast: See Details Here
    Pooja Gidwani MD, Inc.

MARINA DEL REY

8:00 AM

10:00 AM – 3:00 PM

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM

11:00 AM

  • Startup Groundworks by JPMorgan: *Invite Only*
    JPMorgan

2:30 PM - 4:30 PM

  • Inside the Minds Bending Our Reality: See Details Here
    USC Information Sciences Institute, Stifel Venture Banking

4:00 PM

5:00 PM - 7:30 PM

5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

  • Elevated Spirits: SA&M Tech Week Exclusive Mixer: See Details Here
    Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

PASADENA

8:00 AM

  • Hacking Human Happiness: See Details Here
    Innovate Pasadena, Art Center College of Design, City of Pasadena

PLAYA VISTA

6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

  • Smart to Intelligent: AI and the Connected Home: See Details Here
    IRVINEi, Loyola Marymount University

SANTA MONICA

12:19 AM

  • The Future of Robotics & Self-Driving Cars: Building Innovation: *Invite Only*
    TECHBUXIN

6:30 AM

8:00 AM

  • Founder Flow: Morning Yoga w/ Cake Equity: See Details Here
    Cake Equity, Cooley LLP

8:00 AM

8:30 AM

  • Early-Stage B2B Tech Founders & Funders Breakfast: See Details Here
    Forum Ventures, Zendesk, Cooley

8:30 AM – 10:30 AM

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM

  • MachineTrader in Action: Low-Code Infrastructure for Serious Traders.: See Details Here
    MachineTrader.io, Alpaca Markets

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM

9:00 AM

  • Penthouse Investor Breakfast with Vulcury Venture Studio: See Details Here
    Vulcury Venture Studio

9:30 AM - 12:00 PM

  • The Predictive CFO: Finance Leadership in the Age of AI: See Details Here
    Elements

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

  • The Future of FitTech: How AI is Reshaping Fitness: See Details Here
    VSPYR, Fred Fitness

10:00 AM – 12:00 AM

  • SoCal Black Tech Express Pitch Competition: See Details Here
    Musa Capital, Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles, Daraja Collective

10:00 AM

  • Hyrox & InStudio Ventures Present: Sweat & Network at Fitstop: Invite Only
    InStudio Ventures, HYROX, Fitstop

10:00 AM

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

  • Hands-On with the Alpaca MCP Server: Natural Language Trading: See Details Here
    MachineTrader.io, Alpaca Markets

11:00 AM - 6:00 PM

12:00 PM

  • Safeguarding the essence of family in an AI-Driven Future: See Details Here
    Trove, MindfulBytes

12:00 PM

  • Investor 360: VC Fireside Chat
    Stubbs Alderton & Markiles Preccelerator

12:00 PM

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

1:00 PM

1:00 PM

  • LA-Tech CEO Summit: Invite Only
    LA-Tech.org

1:00 PM

  • The Founder’s Fight Club: See Details Here
    Braav Security, Santa Monica Striking

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

2:00 PM

2:00 PM

2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

  • Connect & Match: Tech Talent & Hiring Managers Navigate the Messy Middle: See Details Here
    Product Advisory Collective (PAC), Product Hiring House

2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

  • Beachside Female Founder Crawl: See Details Here
    Anne Taylor Communications, LLC., With Mari

2:30 PM

3:00 PM

  • AI in Africa Panel - Landscape, Opportunities, & Challenges
    Exo AI

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

3:00 PM - 5:30 PM

  • Climate Connect: Pickle Edition - Blue Bear + JPM: See Details Here
    BlueBear Capital, J.P. Morgan

3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

  • Talking with your data: ‘AI for BI’ happy hour: See Details Here
    Google Cloud, Looker

3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

  • The Future of Social Commerce: See Details Here
    Outlandish, TikTok, The Dodo Group, FHI Heat, Wyze, Back in the Box

3:00 PM

4:00 PM

4:00 PM

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

  • Startups, Investors & Women Leaders: See Details Here
    Product Advisory Collective (PAC), Capacity Capital

4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

  • The Future of Creator Content Markets: See Details Here
    Winston Francois, Founder Mode

4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

  • Shaping Stories: Journalism, PR, Tech in a New Era: See Details Here
    Fr8qu8ncy, All In One Entertainment

4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

  • Community Led Launches: A Fireside Chat w/ Lavinia Errico (Equinox) & Actress Meagan Good: See Details Here
    CRWD

4:00 PM – 8:00 PM

4:30 PM – 6:30 PM

  • Vision to Velocity: Public Funding Pathways for DeepTech Founders: See Details Here
    Origin Ventures, Embark

4:30 PM – 7:00 PM

  • The Future of Mobility UX, a salon hosted by CoMotion & BMW Designworks: See Details Here
    CoMotion, BMW Designworks

5:00 PM

  • Signals & Capital - Where SaaS Is Heading & Who's Funding It: See Details Here
    Efficient Capital Labs, BDev Ventures, Mercury

5:00 PM

  • Personal Branding for founders & creators: See Details Here
    Girls Club, Oui We Studio, The Escapism Retreat

5:00 PM

5:00 PM

5:00 PM

  • Biz@Sunset Mixer: *Invite Only*
    Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, Shore Hote

5:00 PM

  • Neurodivergent Founders & Funders: A happy hour: See Details Here
    Shimmer, Neurode

5:00 PM

  • Innovation in Sports, Media & Entertainment with OneTeam and Waverley Capital: See Details Here
    One Team Partners, Waverley Capital

5:00 PM

  • Coffee & Chill: Gamers Unite at the Energy Station with Blockus: *Invite Only*
    Blockus

5:00 PM

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

  • The Next Orbit: Deep Tech & Beyond: See Details Here
    Fenwick, Generation Space, Upfront Ventures

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

  • CPG Happy Hour- XRC Brand Builder Grant Closing Event: See Details Here
    XRC Ventures, SHOPLINE, Manatt

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

  • The After-Hours Exchange: AI & Innovation Mixer: See Details Here
    Law Offices of Shan Potts

5:00 PM – 7:30 PM

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • Experience the Future of AI Filmmaking: See Details Here
    Neu Wave AI Films, cinemarket AI

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • Life After Perforce: Next-Gen Version Control for Game Dev & Virtual Production: See Details Here
    Diversion

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • Smart Brand Solutions: Tech Innovations 2025-2030: See Details Here
    Portal Media Center, Xavvi

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • Women in Tech (Sales, MKTG, & PR): See Details Here
    Kat Rucker Consulting Group, JTS - Joiful Talent Solutions

5:00 PM – 10:00 PM

  • AI FILMAKING: HOLLYWOOD'S NEW ALGORITHM: See Details Here
    Syndicate AI, Hollo AI, Hustle Fund

5:30 PM

5:30 PM

  • From Exec to investor: making the leap from running companies: *Invite Only*
    a16z speedrun

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

6:00 PM

  • Games fireside chat and dinner with ElevenLabs: *Invite Only*
    ElevenLabs

6:00 PM

  • Breaking Barriers: Leveraging Biotech for Upward Mobility: See Details Here
    Biotech Connection Los Angeles, LA BioSpace

6:00 PM

6:00 PM

  • The Tech + Media Mixer With Fr8qu8ncy: See Details Here
    Fr8qu8ncy, The Omniverse City, All In One Entertainment, Trend

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • Youth Mental Well-Being and AI Panel/Mixer: See Details Here
    Headstream, iOpening Enterprises, Innovation Hub at Georgetown's Thrive Center, SidePorch

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • The Next Level: The Unfair Advantages of Building with a Venture Studio: See Details Here
    Expa

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • The Agent Era : Get Your Own AI Career Agent: See Details Here
    HeyNavii.ai, hawkemedia

6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

  • J.P. Morgan Presents: State of the Software Market ft. Alumni Ventures, Invoca, and K1: See Details Here
    J.P. Morgan, K1 Investment Management, Alumni Ventures, Invoca

6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

  • Forging The Future: A Discussion With Founders Building the Future of A&D: See Details Here
    Venturing Through Venture

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

  • Health Tech Exec Happy Hour by Rounds Health, MEDU, and Objective: See Details Here
    Rounds Health

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

  • Artificially Unintelligent Tech Comedy Show + Open Bar, with Vanta, Fondo & Axle Health: See Details Here
    Not So Daily Stand Up Comedy LLC, Vanta, Fondo Inc

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

  • In Good Company: Pitch-A-Founder: See Details Here
    The Neon White, Code Tech, Zendevr

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:30 PM

  • Unpacked: A Midweek Happy Hour for Creative Women in Tech: See Details Here
    PRISM Bags

7:00 PM

  • Curated Founder Dinner - Top Tech Founders (Apply/Invite-only): See Details Here
    KStar Holdings, GeekDoingGood.org

7:00 PM

  • The Re-Up: A Tech, Wellness & Art Experience: *Invite Only*
    GloFlow Wellness

7:00 PM

  • Santa Monica Fireside Dinner for LA TechWeek
    VioletX

7:00 PM

7:00 PM

  • Tech & Tonic - Learn & Social | Includes 1 Drink: See Details Here
    Los Angeles Fun Events

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

  • XRC Founder & Investor Dinner - XRC x SHOPLINE Brand Builder Grant: See Details Here
    XRC Ventures, SHOPLINE, Manatt

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

7:30 PM

  • Emerging Technology: See Details Here
    Lawrence Harvey - Emerging Tech Specialists, Lawrence Harvey

8:00 PM

  • What's Next: An Evening with Expa: *Invite Only*
    Expa

UCLA

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

  • Ghosted by Humans, Heard by AI?: See Details Here
    The Data Science Union at UCLA, SAY!T Mental Health

VENICE

8:00 AM – 10:00 AM

  • LA Tech Week - Women in VC Breakfast: See Details Here
    Fulcrum Venture Group, iSquared Capital, Juniper Square

9:00 AM

9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

11:00 AM

12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

2:00 PM – 7:00 PM

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

3:00 PM

  • Family Office Seed to Scale: *Invite Only*
    Family Office Cross Border Alliance

3:00 PM – 6:30 PM

  • Google Cloud's CTO Connect - The New AI Creative Era & Happy Hour: See Details Here
    Google Cloud

4:00 PM

  • From Code to Cognitive: Building AI Agents & Automated Workflows: See Details Here
    Ardas

4:00 PM

  • Female Founders and Funders Happy Hour: See Details Here
    2 to 20, Rhodes Creative Group, TriNet, Orrick

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • Founder Friends: See Details Here
    Hustle Fund, Rivian, Fidelity Private Shares, Mercer Advisors

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • AI, Innovation & Oktoberfest!: See Details Here
    NRW.Global Business (North America)

5:30 PM

5:30 PM – 8:00 PM

  • Founders x Fractionals: The Future of Venture Building - A Build Momentum Launch Party: See Details Here
    Build Momentum

6:00 PM

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

7:00 PM

VENICE BEACH

9:00 AM

  • Swiss Watch AI: The $7B Opportunity - Morning Coffee and Pastries: See Details Here
    ViviScout

7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

VIRTUAL (LA)

11:00 AM

  • Capital + Growth: The New Model of Company Building: See Details Here
    Untapped Ventures

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

  • Hard Truths: Why Hardware Startups Fail Part II: See Details Here
    Hardware Velocity

WEST ADAMS

4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

  • Breaking Into Cyber: Your Roadmap to a New Career: See Details Here
    The Gathering Spot, What If Security, KSCOPE

WEST HOLLYWOOD

11:00 AM

  • Series A founders +Investors@ Private Club Hollywood, featuring Arthur Spivak: See Details Here
    Amino Capital, Atlas Cloud, Wilson Sonsini

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

  • Scaling Your Consumer AI Startup | Panel with Snap & OpenAI | Hosted by Maven Ventures: See Details Here
    Maven Ventures, Inworld

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

  • 『AI Founders' Meetup』🌟 LA Digital Commerce Night: See Details Here
    UpScaleX, Moxy

7:00 PM – 9:30 PM

WEST SIDE

4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

  • Who Regulates the Robots? Startups, Ethics, and the AI Wild West: See Details Here
    Sunstone Management, Pepperdine Graziado Business School

4:00 PM - 7:00 PM

  • Visionaries & VCs - The Early Stage Edition: See Details Here
    Amplify, Bling Capital, ActOne, Ventures

6:00 PM

  • AI + IS (Artificial Intelligence + Imagined Self): *Invite Only*
    MRKAI

6:30 PM - 9:00 PM

  • The Future of Pickleball - An LA Tech Week Roundtable: See Details Here
    DinkSmart

For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

Enjoy LA Tech Week 2025!

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A $26M Push Into Power in LA

🔦 Spotlight

Hello, Los Angeles.

Coachella Weekend 2 is here, which usually means LA is either heading back to the desert or happily staying put this time around. Back in the city, the focus this week is less about music infrastructure and more about something far more critical, power.

That’s where this week’s news comes in.

Critical Loop, a Los Angeles-based energy startup, raised a $26 million Series A to tackle one of the least talked about bottlenecks in tech right now, grid interconnection. In simple terms, it’s the process of getting power to where it’s needed, and increasingly, that process is too slow to keep up.

Critical Loop is building modular microgrid systems that can be deployed in days instead of years, giving industrial operators, data centers, and other energy-heavy users faster access to power without waiting on traditional grid upgrades. The round was led by Conifer Infrastructure Partners and Hanover, with participation from Better Ventures, Climate Capital, Adapt Nation Capital, and Cyrus Ventures.

The timing here matters. Between AI infrastructure demands, electrification, and a broader push toward domestic energy resilience, power is quickly becoming a gating factor for growth. You can build the data center, the factory, or the next big thing, but none of it works if you can’t turn it on.

That’s what makes companies like Critical Loop worth watching. They’re not building the flashiest part of the stack, but they’re solving for the piece everything else depends on.

And in a city that knows a thing or two about scaling ambition quickly, that might be the most important layer of all.

Below are this week’s fund announcements across LA 👇


🤝 Venture Deals

LA Venture Funds

  • Anthos Capital participated in Wealth.com’s $65M Series B, backing the AI-powered estate and tax planning platform as it scales across financial institutions. The oversubscribed round included new investors like Titanium Ventures and Pruven Capital alongside existing backers, and the company plans to use the funding to expand product development, pursue acquisitions, and grow its enterprise footprint as demand rises for AI-driven wealth management solutions. - learn more
  • Anamika Ventures participated in Sage Haven’s $3M pre-seed round, backing the AI-powered messaging and calling app designed to create a safer communication environment for kids. The round was led by Anamika Ventures alongside Fabric Ventures and a group of early-stage investors, as the company launches a platform focused on preventing cyberbullying through real-time AI moderation and parent oversight tools. - learn more
  • MANTIS Venture Capital participated in Factory’s $150M Series C, backing the AI startup as it builds autonomous software engineering systems for enterprise teams. The round was led by Khosla Ventures and included firms like Sequoia Capital, Blackstone, Insight Partners, and NEA, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Factory plans to use the funding to invest further in product development and global expansion as demand grows for AI-driven tools that can automate large portions of the software development process. - learn more
  • Rebel Fund participated in Uplane’s $4.5M seed round, backing the AI startup as it looks to replace traditional marketing agencies with a platform that automates ad creation, testing, and budget optimization. The round was led by Play Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, 20VC, and Multimodal Ventures, and the company says its technology can improve return on ad spend by automating performance marketing workflows. - learn more
  • Alexandria Venture Investments and Presight Capital participated in Alloy Therapeutics’ $40M Series E, backing the biotech infrastructure company as it scales its AI-powered platform for drug discovery and development. The round included a mix of new investors like 8VC and JIC Venture Growth Investments alongside returning backers, valuing the company at $1 billion and underscoring continued interest in platforms that combine AI, data, and lab services across the biopharma lifecycle. - learn more
  • Finality Capital Partners participated in HYFIX’s $15M seed round, backing the semiconductor startup as it builds American-made chips designed to power drones and autonomous robots. The round was led by Craft Ventures with participation from Catapult Ventures, Multicoin Capital, and Sky Dayton, and the company is developing an integrated system-on-a-chip to replace fragmented hardware stacks and reduce reliance on foreign components. - learn more
  • Rainfall Ventures participated in Stendr’s $5.4M pre-seed round, backing the Norwegian defense tech startup as it builds an AI-native platform for drone detection and counter-drone operations. The round was co-led by Rainfall alongside ACME Capital and Skyfall, with additional participation from Antler, StartupLab, and other early-stage investors, and the company plans to use the funding to accelerate development of its multi-sensor technology and expand engineering capabilities. - learn more
  • Slauson & Co. participated in Slate Auto’s $650M funding round, backing the EV startup as it works to bring a lower-cost electric pickup truck to market. The round was led by TWG Global and comes as the Bezos-backed company prepares to begin production, targeting a more affordable segment of the EV market with a customizable truck expected to launch later this year. - learn more
  • Navitas Capital co-led Primepoint’s $10M seed round, backing the AI startup as it builds a platform that reads and connects complex construction drawings to streamline project workflows. The round also included investors like Penny Jar Capital, NextView Ventures, GS Futures, and Aglaé Ventures, and the company plans to use the funding to expand its platform and grow adoption among large commercial contractors. - learn more
  • Alexandria Venture Investments participated in Neomorph’s $100M Series B, backing the biotech company as it advances its molecular glue degrader platform targeting previously undruggable diseases. The round was led by Deerfield Management with participation from Regeneron Ventures, Longwood Fund, and Binney Street Capital, and the company plans to use the funding to support ongoing clinical trials and expand its broader drug development pipeline. - learn more

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Hermeus Moves In. Uber Lines Up. LA Wins.

🔦 Spotlight

Hello, Los Angeles.

This week’s transportation news says a lot about where LA is headed and who wants to build here.

Start with Hermeus, which hit a $1 billion valuation after raising $350 million as it works on high-speed aircraft for defense applications. More notably for Los Angeles, the company is moving its headquarters to El Segundo, adding to the region’s growing aerospace and defense cluster. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from returning backers including Canaan Partners, Founders Fund, RTX Ventures, Bling Capital, and In-Q-Tel, along with new investors including Cox Enterprises, Socium Ventures, Destiny Tech100, Georgia Tech Foundation, 137 Ventures, and GSBackers.

Then there’s Uber, which made two separate autonomous vehicle announcements that both put Los Angeles in the rollout map.

The first is a partnership with Zoox, Amazon’s autonomous vehicle company. Uber said the service is expected to launch in Las Vegas in summer 2026 and then come to Los Angeles by mid-2027, giving riders the option to match with a Zoox robotaxi through the Uber app.

The second is a new deal with MOIA America, which plans to deploy autonomous ID. Buzz vehicles on the Uber platform in Los Angeles by the end of 2026.

Taken together, the message is pretty straightforward: LA is not just watching the future of transportation take shape, it is increasingly being used as the place to test it, scale it, and sell it. Hermeus is bringing its headquarters here as defense aviation regains momentum. Uber is lining up autonomous partners with Los Angeles as a target market. Different companies, different timelines, same conclusion: a meaningful share of the next transportation cycle is being built with LA in mind.

Below are this week’s venture deals, fund announcements, and acquisitions across LA.


🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies
  • PeakMetrics raised a $6M Series A to scale its AI-powered narrative intelligence platform, which helps organizations track how information spreads online and identify risks from misinformation and coordinated campaigns. The round was led by Moneta Ventures with participation from Techstars, Parameter Ventures, VITALIZE Venture Capital, and Gurtin Ventures, and the company plans to use the funding to enhance its real-time detection capabilities and expand adoption across enterprise and government customers. - learn more
  • Hybron raised a $25M seed round to scale its advanced carbon fiber composite manufacturing technology, which aims to produce high-performance components faster and at lower cost than traditional methods. The round was led by Marque Ventures with participation from a mix of venture firms and strategic investors, and the company plans to use the funding to expand manufacturing capacity, grow its team, and support increasing demand from aerospace and defense programs. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

  • Emmeline Ventures participated in Osteoboost’s $8M funding round, backing the company as it expands access to its FDA-cleared wearable designed to treat low bone density in postmenopausal women. The round was led by Ambit Health Ventures with participation from Disrupt Health Impact Fund and others, and the company plans to use the capital to scale manufacturing, expand clinical research, and grow commercial adoption. - learn more
  • Bonfire Ventures led Juno’s $12M seed round, backing the AI-powered tax preparation platform as it aims to automate up to 90% of the manual work in tax filing for accounting firms. The round included participation from Impression Ventures and Xfund, and the company says its software can significantly reduce preparation time while keeping CPAs in the loop for review and advisory work. - learn more
  • Alexandria Venture Investments participated in Sidewinder Therapeutics’ $137M Series B, which will help fund the company’s push to bring its precision bispecific ADC cancer programs into the clinic. The round was co-led by Frazier Life Sciences and Novartis Venture Fund, and Sidewinder said it expects to advance its lead program into clinical development in 2027. - learn more
  • Slauson & Co. participated in Flora Fertility’s $5M seed round, backing the company as it builds what it describes as an individually owned fertility insurance platform that is not tied to an employer. The round was led by ManchesterStory, and Flora plans to use the funding to scale a model aimed at making fertility coverage more portable and accessible for consumers. - learn more
  • Mucker Capital participated in Fastrflow’s $375K early funding round, backing the startup as it builds a screen-aware AI copilot designed to assist students and professionals directly within their workflows. The company is focused on creating an assistant that can understand what’s on a user’s screen in real time to provide contextual help, positioning itself as a more integrated alternative to traditional standalone AI tools. - learn more

LA Exits

  • Modern Animal has been acquired by Chewy, giving the pet e-commerce giant a much bigger physical veterinary footprint as it expands deeper into healthcare. The deal brings Chewy an additional 29 clinics, 24/7 virtual care, and a membership-based model, and is expected to grow Chewy Vet Care from 18 to 47 locations nationwide while adding more than $125 million in annualized run-rate revenue. - learn more
  • Honk has been acquired by Frontenac, with the Los Angeles roadside assistance software company simultaneously completing an add-on acquisition of CurbsideSOS as part of the deal. The combination is meant to scale Honk’s platform for roadside assistance, towing, and accident management, with former Grubhub executives including Adam DeWitt, Matt Maloney, and Eric Ferguson joining the company to lead its next phase of growth. - learn more

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Valar Atomics Wants to Power AI, Literally

🔦 Spotlight

Hello, Los Angeles.

This week’s spotlight belongs to a startup chasing one of the biggest and messiest questions in tech right now: where all the power for AI is actually supposed to come from. El Segundo-based Valar Atomics, founded by Isaiah Taylor, is reportedly raising $450 million at a $2 billion valuation to build clusters of small nuclear reactors aimed at powering data centers and other energy-hungry industrial sites.

That is not a subtle ambition. On its website, Valar says it wants to build “hundreds of nuclear reactors” on what it calls gigasites, focusing on grid-independent products including data center power, hydrogen, heavy industrial power, and clean hydrocarbon fuels. Its reactor approach is based on high-temperature gas reactor design principles using TRISO fuel, and the company is explicitly pitching its model as a way to meet the surge in power demand coming from AI.

Valar’s investor roster also helps explain why the company has drawn so much attention. The startup is backed by Palmer Luckey and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, and its earlier $130M round in November 2025 was led by Snowpoint Ventures.

What makes the story especially interesting is that this is not just another AI infrastructure company talking about faster chips or more efficient software. It is a bet that the next bottleneck is electricity itself, and that the winning response might look a lot more like hard infrastructure than cloud optimization. In a market full of startups promising to power the future metaphorically, Valar is making a much stranger and bolder claim: it wants to do it literally.

The company is also moving with unusual speed. Valar says it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to achieve criticality on American soil by July 4, 2026 under the administration’s accelerated nuclear program, and related company materials tie its Project NOVA work to the Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program. Whether that timeline proves realistic or not, it tells you something important about the kind of company this wants to be: not a distant science project, but a startup trying to force nuclear power onto AI’s timetable.

And maybe that is the bigger LA angle here. For all the conversation around software, content, and consumer apps, Southern California keeps producing founders who are drawn to the hard stuff: defense, aerospace, energy, logistics, real-world systems with real-world constraints. Valar may still have plenty to prove, but it is hard to accuse this one of thinking small.

Now onto this week’s LA venture deals, fund announcements and acquisitions.

🤝 Venture Deals

                  LA Venture Funds

                  • Matter Venture Partners participated in Anvil Robotics’ $5.5M seed round, which it led and which also included Humba Ventures, DNX Ventures, Vivek Sodera, Spacecadet Ventures, and Position Ventures. Anvil said it is building a kind of “Legos for robots” platform for physical AI teams, with open-source custom robots that can ship in one to two days, and has already delivered more than 100 units globally while surpassing seven figures in revenue. - learn more
                  • WndrCo led daydream’s $15M Series A, backing the AI-native SEO agency alongside First Round Capital and Basis Set Ventures. daydream said the round brings total funding to $21M and will be used to accelerate hiring, product development, and go-to-market expansion as it combines SEO agents with human experts to help companies navigate both traditional search and AI search. - learn more
                  • Embark Ventures participated in Via Separations’ $36M funding round, which also brought in new strategic backing from Climate Investment, Aramco Ventures, and Marathon Petroleum Corporation. Via said the capital will help deploy more commercial projects and expand its membrane-based industrial filtration platform into refining and chemicals, building on commercial traction in pulp and paper and a pilot completed at a major Gulf Coast refinery. - learn more
                  • Finality Capital Partners co-led Alien’s $7.1M round alongside Initialized, backing the company’s push to build identity infrastructure for both humans and AI agents. According to the X post announcing the raise, Alien plans to use the funding to develop unique identity systems at a time when proving whether an entity online is human or agentic is becoming increasingly important. - learn more
                  • M13 participated in OpenFX’s $94M Series A, as the company builds API infrastructure for global FX liquidity. OpenFX said it now moves more than $45B a year across borders, settles 98% of transactions in under 60 minutes, and plans to use the funding to expand its institutional-grade, API-first platform for cross-border payments and treasury operations. - learn more
                  • M13 led Jimini Health’s $17M seed round, backing the company alongside Town Hall Ventures, LionBird, Zetta Venture Partners, and OneMind as it builds a clinician-supervised AI platform for behavioral health. Jimini said the funding will help scale Sage into more care settings and deepen partnerships with major behavioral health providers across the U.S., positioning it as a safer alternative to unsupervised consumer AI tools for mental health support. - learn more
                  • MANTIS Venture Capital participated in depthfirst’s $80M Series B, which was led by Meritech Capital and also included Forerunner Ventures, The House Fund, Accel, Box Group, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Alt Capital. The company said the new funding will be used to train additional security models, grow its AI research team, and scale enterprise adoption as it builds an AI-native platform for software security and launches its first in-house security model. - learn more
                  • Freeflow Ventures participated in TippingPoint Biosciences’ $4.5M seed round, joining SOSV, LKS Fund, Sazze Partners, StoryHouse Ventures, Sontag Innovation Fund, BrightEdge, XEIA Venture Partners, West Coast Angel Network, and others. The company said the financing will help de-risk its epigenetic discovery platform as it works to translate chromatin biology into new therapeutics. - learn more

                                    LA Exits

                                    • Warner Music Group agreed to acquire Revelator, a B2B music platform focused on digital distribution, rights management, royalty accounting, and real-time analytics for independent labels, artists, and distributors. WMG said the deal will strengthen its distribution and label services business, expand the tools available through its labels and ADA, and allow Revelator to keep serving its existing customers while scaling through WMG’s global infrastructure. - learn more
                                    • Omni Agent Solutions has been acquired by Fortress Investment Group, which said the deal will provide long-term capital and resources to expand Omni’s tech-forward platform for bankruptcy and restructuring case administration. Omni said the investment will support continued technology development and scale across services such as claims management, noticing, solicitation support, securities services, disbursements, and call center operations, while its executive and operational teams remain in place. - learn more
                                    • Apium Swarm Robotics is being acquired by Red Cat, adding its distributed control technology for autonomous swarming drones and uncrewed surface vessels to Red Cat’s broader defense platform. Red Cat said Apium will continue operating independently while its autonomy stack is integrated across the business to strengthen coordinated multi-agent operations in contested and communications-degraded environments. - learn more
                                    • HOPWTR is being fully acquired by Constellation Brands, which first invested in the non-alcoholic sparkling water brand through its venture arm in 2021. Constellation said the deal strengthens its no- and low-alcohol portfolio as consumer demand in the space grows, while HOPWTR is expected to keep operating as it does today in the near term with CEO Jordan Bass remaining involved. - learn more

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